Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management
First Advisor
Lori Pennington-Gray
Abstract
This dissertation examines tourism development in post-Soviet countries through the theoretical lens of Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG), integrating concepts of path dependency, punctuated equilibrium, and complexity theory. Despite sharing seven decades of Soviet history, the fifteen post-Soviet nations have pursued divergent tourism development trajectories since 1991, offering a unique opportunity to analyze how historical legacies, institutional arrangements, and governance approaches influence tourism outcomes in transitional economies.
Through three interconnected studies, this research investigates how Soviet-era legacies shape contemporary tourism development, analyzes the relationship between institutional characteristics and policy volatility, and evaluates how different development approaches contribute to sustainable development outcomes. The methodological approach combines systematic literature review following the PRISMA framework, L-moments analysis of tourism policy punctuations, and hierarchical cluster analysis with discriminant analysis of tourism's contribution to SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).
Key findings reveal that tourism development in post-Soviet states is fundamentally shaped by path dependency, with historical infrastructure investments, governance arrangements, and societal attitudes creating lock-in effects that constrain current tourism strategies. Contrary to conventional wisdom, post-Soviet states with more developed democratic institutions exhibit greater policy volatility in tourism governance, while autocratic states demonstrate more stable but less adaptive tourism policies. The research identifies multiple pathways to successful tourism development, with different governance models achieving comparable sustainability outcomes through distinct mechanisms. Estonia's EU-aligned frameworks, Georgia's market-oriented approach with selective governance interventions, and Kazakhstan's resource-led development each demonstrate viable strategies adapted to specific contextual conditions.
The dissertation makes significant theoretical contributions by advancing EEG through the integration of punctuated equilibrium theory, demonstrating the applicability of complexity theory to tourism development, and challenging universal models in sustainable tourism research. Practical implications include the importance of context-specific approaches to tourism development, strategic resource management for sustainable outcomes, integrated planning to address multi-dimensional constraints, and mechanisms to mitigate policy volatility in transitional economies.
This research enhances understanding of tourism evolution in post-Soviet contexts while offering insights relevant to other transitional economies, contributing to both theoretical advancement and practical policy formulation in tourism governance, sustainable development, and economic evolution.
Rights
© 2025, Lali Odosashvili
Recommended Citation
Odosashvili, L.(2025). From Soviet Legacy to Sustainable Tourism: Evolutionary Economic Geography Perspectives on Tourism Development in Post-Soviet States. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8419